1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system, method, and computer program product for managing and optimizing power systems at the aircraft level beginning at the early stages of design.
2. Description of the Related Art
The optimization of aircraft architectures with regard to power generation, consumption, distribution and transformation entails a balancing of resources in the various subsystems comprising the overall aircraft architecture. The various subsystems can thus be thought of as the local level and referred to as power systems, and the overall aircraft architecture can be thought of as the global level and referred to as the aircraft level. For example, increased mass requires increased fuel for increased thrust, but the amount of thrust required for a given aircraft is a function of mass, including the mass of fuel, and drag. Thus, balancing all the parameters or variables that affect power generation, consumption, distribution and transformation requires the ability to see the effect of changing one parameter in one power system on parameters in other power systems and also on the overall aircraft architecture.
In the past, each power system was designed independently and the balancing of resources did not occur until later in the overall design process. This type of interface between power system designs precluded dynamic modifications in each of the power systems to achieve improved balance in the overall aircraft architecture, i.e. the aircraft level, during the pre-design phase, i.e. the phase before integration of the various power systems into the aircraft level.